Feature Archives

While many people were out buying Valentine's Day gifts or flowers, same-sex couples in San Francisco were asking for the right to marry on February 14th. Every year since 2005 same-sex couples go to the City and County Clerks' office in San Francisco's City Hall on Valentine's Day and request to get married. And each year they are denied, so they a hold sit-in until they are arrested.

On February 12th, a benefit is being held for the Red Vic Movie House on Haight Street in San Francisco. Organizers state that "San Francisco is dangerously close to losing this 30-year old worker-owned community establishment. All the filmmakers and speakers in this series are donating 100% the box office revenue to the keep the Red Vic's doors open so they can continue to give voice to films like these that [the] mainstream does NOT want you you to see!" Lovers + Liberators is a fund-raising event for the Red Vic that brings together three films with the themes of liberation and domestic "terrorism".

UPDATE: On February 11th, Mubarak resigned and passed control of the country to an Egyptian military council.

A new mass protest in Egypt took place Friday, February 4th, as plain clothes police and other Mubarak supporters continued to attack protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square. In the early morning hours of February 3rd, supporters of the regime opened fire on the protesters in the square, killing at least eleven.

An international day of protest in solidarity with the Egyptian people was held February 5th. In San Francisco, thousands of protesters, including many Egyptians, gathered and marched in solidarity with the mass movement in Egypt.

In the fall of 2009, a group of war resisters and veterans from San Francisco traveled to Israel and Palestine to meet with their Israeli counterparts in an effort to strengthen connections and share experiences. The group, calling itself Dialogues Against Militarism (DAM), partnered with David Zlutnick, a Bay Area filmmaker, to ensure that the voices and stories of those they spoke with would be captured and return with them to the United States. The new documentary, Occupation Has No Future, premieres in San Francisco on February 3rd and San Rafael on February 10th.

On the day after President Obama's State of the Union address, young people and elders gathered in front of the Federal Building in San Francisco for a rally and press conference to demand more job creation efforts. They stood together to commit to the fight to save social security, calling it "America's promise to its people."

On January 25th, rallies were held in San Jose, San Francisco, and other cities across the U.S. in response to the FBI raids on seven homes and an anti-war office on September 24, 2010. The FBI also has served subpoenas to testify before a federal grand jury to 14 activists in Illinois, Minnesota, and Michigan. These activists are involved in many groups, including the Twin Cities Anti-War Committee, the Palestine Solidarity Group, the Colombia Action Network, Students for a Democratic Society, and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

In a day of protests in Egypt, hundreds of thousands of people marched in the streets on January 25th, facing down riot police, water cannons, baton charges and tear gas. The people are chanting for freedom and an end to the corrupt administration of Hosni Mubarak, in power for 30 years, with the demand that he join the Tunisian dictator Ben Ali in Saudi Arabia.

On January 28th, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets again as the government cut access to internet and phone service for much of the country. By the evening, government buildings on fire and many protesters dead and wounded from tear gas canisters and live ammunition. As the army took to the street, replacing the police, and initially not attacking protesters, many thought the revolution had achieved its goal but Mubarak appeared on state television in the early evening to say he had fired the rest of the government but intended to stay in power.

On February 1st, millions took to the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and other Egyptian cities to demand an end to the Mubarak regime. Mubarak responded that he will not run for re-election in September but demonstrators will not let him steal another rigged election for his military junta; a protest is scheduled for Friday February 4th to march on the Presidential Palace in Heliopolis and force a change in regime.

On January 29th, hundreds took to the streets in San Francisco to stand in solidarity with the protesters in Egypt.